Yoga Report

photo: Stig Åvall Severinsen

Finally I had the chance to meet the 4 times world champion Stig Åvall Severinsen. We met in the Copenhagen Dive Show and of course I was a bit nervous to meet this legend. In connection to yoga I have done a bit of  breath retention and my fascination for free-diving started with the Big Blue where free-diving is pictured as a very beautiful and spiritual practice. Stig has an athletic build and comes across as a very friendly person . He talks with passion about breathing and how important it is for us. During  the lecture he walks us through the breathing process and we are encouraged to try some techniques. Straight after the lecture it is time to put on  the wetsuit as I am one of the guinea pigs for the demonstration.  Static Apnea, the art of holding the breath under water proves to be quite challenging. The wetsuit is really tight and there are people watching us from all around the pool.  Stig guides us through the session with relaxation techniques. At first I am tensed and the wetsuit is holding me in a very tight grip. The scuba mask is forcing me to breath through the mouth and this feels really awkward.  During the first dive there are a lot of thoughts circling around in my head “all the other guys are experts” ” just stop the practice and give up”. I notice these thoughts and I decide to get to the point where the breathing reflex starts and then go up.  Before the second try we do a meditation together.  The second try is much better and I feel the breathing reflex but it does not bother me that much. I hear the referee say 3 minutes and I decide to stay in there for a while. I am quite happy with 3 minutes and 25 seconds in my second try. I have done breath retention in a meditation posture before but this is cold water and with all kinds of distractions.

He really sparked my interest for free diving and I can see myself doing this in the red sea with just a pair of shorts on and a diving mask. Definitely something I want to try again !

Something that really scares me is deep water and I remember one time when I was snorkelling in the Red Sea and the water was clear but I could not see the bottom. That really scared me and maybe free diving will the therapy I need ?

There are two ways of doing a relaxed meditation. I will walk you through both of the examples. The student is laying on his back and this is the instruction he will be given

“saying to yourself ‘I feel the tension flowing out of my leg…my leg feels relaxed, warm, heavy… completely relaxed’ “

this is also called auto-suggestion and this is classified by wikipedia as:

“Autosuggestion (or the related autogenic training) is a process by which an individual trains the subconscious mind to believe something, or systematically schematizes the person’s own mental associations, usually for a given purpose. “

the other type of instruction is a little bit more open ended:

“become aware of your leg from the inside. feel it with all your awareness”

this will lead the student to the leg but the rest is up to the student.

the first version can calm the mind but to really find the reason for the disturbed state one needs to go with the second method.

“In a broader sense, vipassanā has been used as one of two poles for the categorization of types of Buddhist meditation, the other being samatha (Pāli; Sanskrit: śamatha). Samatha is a focusing, pacifying and calming meditation, common to many traditions in the world, notably yoga. It is used as a preparation for vipassanā, pacifying the mind and strengthening the concentration in order to allow the work of insight. ” wikipedia

You can practice on the concentration but meditation and deeper insights comes spontaneously. You can have a deeper insight when you have sex as well as you can have a major depression in a church. Spiritual life does not stop when you leave the yoga hall or leave the meditation room.

I am very grateful for the technology we have at hand. I am  able to take a course at a prestigious university in America or at least get a taste on how it is to study there. What I am talking about is a podcast from Daniel Coffeen on Rhetoric.

I wake up at 4:00 am and I go for a run. It is pitch black outside and this gives me that little edge to my competitors since I do this when they are asleep. The most difficult part about the fighting is the training, life is very monotonous. Constantly repetitious. This is the first lines from a documentary about Iron Mikes training routines. The REAL truth behind success. I spent winter vacation in the middle of Sweden were the temperature where far below the freezing point and most of the day it is dark. I had Iron Mikes words in my head when I was clearing up the path to our summerhouse were the snow depth was a staggering 80 centimetres. I also brought the tripod and video camera home to see how mobile I am. After rigging some improvisational lighting and putting together some lines I started to record. I noticed my thoughts when I posted these videos on YouTube. With the patience of a little child I kept on updating the youtube page to see if someone commented on it. I got a really strong reaction when a guy told me that I looked like an ugly bald German person in one of my videos. I got mostly positive comments and very high rating so this comment should not bother me but it DID. My greatest fear was to get a comment like this. It affected me deeply and made me think about my expectations. There are many painful moments associated with expectation. I remember building up the courage to approach a girl when I was about 11 years old. I walked up to the girl and asked her for a dance and she turned me down ! In one way it was a success since I overcame my fear and did what I wanted to do but of course I did not see it that way at the time and I walked away sad.

Expectation can also turn into excuses. Oh she said no to me I am sure all the other girls will say the same thing there is no need to even try. It is incredible how many silly thoughts that pops up in my head before I teach a class of yoga or hold a public performance of some sort. DO I have material enough to cover 1,5 hours ? What happens if they do not understand me ? What happens if I forget what to say in the middle of it ? what if my appearance distracts them from the message ? what if they find me really boring ? I can’t hide my head in the sand and forget about these questions but I need to CONFRONT them and maybe I can learn something from them ?

In my my last yoga lecture I surprised myself and talked much more than usual. I used material which came to me in the recording sessions earlier. In the recording sessions I tried to address some question students may have. A book I really recommend if you want to enhance your story telling ability is The Story Factor by Annette Simmons and Doug Lipman.A great  movie inspiration when you want to capture your audience is The Great Debaters. For Debate techniques on a shoestring search for Rhetoric in Wikipedia

It is always nice to see my parents and they have a lot of snow up there. When crawling through the snow towards our summer house I got some ideas I want to share with you. I would like to do podcasts/videocast where I talk about current events. I posted a video on YouTube where I talk about modern warfare 2 and how you can compare it to hockey. I got a lot of feedback and I want to do more. Please tell me what you want to see/hear in those pod casts ! Leave a comment !

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